nd he did not care for
this petty pilfering. Then the Frenchmen began coming out, with the
Annamites and the Indians, each man with a bundle on his back, and the
Cossack, esteeming his watch ended, got up and stepped back. Once
again, like bloodhounds, the crowd rushed in, an endless stream of
men, women, and even children, all summoned by the news that the
pawn-shop, which was their natural enemy, had fallen. They roared past
us, striking and tearing at one another with insane gestures as if
each one feared that he would be too late. Inside the scene must have
baffled description, for a clamour soon rose which showed that it was
a battle to the death to secure loot at any price. Shrill cries and
awful groans rose high above the storm of sound, as the desperadoes of
the city, who were mixed with the more innocent common people, struck
out with choppers and bar iron and mercilessly felled to the ground
all who stood in their way. With conflicting feelings we struggled
outside, and as I mounted my pony, a wretched man covered with blood
rushed forward, and flinging himself at my feet, cried to me sobbingly
to save him. He was the last of the pawn-shop defenders and was
bleeding in a dozen places. Him, too, we roughly tied up and saved,
and telling him to mount a cart and to lie concealed inside, at last
we moved on again. We were gathering odd cargo.

The day was now waning, for the time had flown swiftly with such
strange scenes, and people began to slink out from side alleys more
and more frequently, as if they had been waiting for this dusk.
Several times we passed bands of men armed with swords and
knives--Boxers, without a doubt--who calmly watched us approach, as if
they were debating whether they should attack us or not. Once, too, a
roll of musketry suddenly rang out sharp and clear but a few hundred
feet away from the high road, only to be succeeded by an icy
silence--more speaking than any sound. We did not dare to stray away
to inquire what it might be; the high road was our only safety. Even
that was doubtful. Curious isolated encounters were taking place all
over the vast city of Peking; it was now everyone for himself, and
not even the devil taking care of the hindmost. It was no place for
innocents.

At last, by vigorous riding and driving, which caused a great clatter
and drew forth many leering faces from darkened doorways, we debouched
into that long main street down which I had shot so few days before